Mourning Beloveth - Formless

1. Theories Of Old Bones2. Ethics On The Precipice3. Old Rope4. Dead Channel5. Nothing Has A Centre

Rating:

3

This is one of those bands who made a mighty impression on me with their first couple of releases (‘Dust’ and ‘The Sullen Sulcous’), a different time and a different state of mind for me also, however I did in fact redress this balance by re-introducing myself to these early recordings prior to listening to this latest offering, their first for five years since the release of ‘A Disease for the Ages’.

Opener ‘Theories of Old Bones’ is well over 14 minutes long, nothing surprising by this bands achievements but this one starts out rather weak and tame…not a good start to this release. The real bite eventually comes when the guitars kick in and finally release some gnarl and energy. Using a twin vocal, the gnarl and death like approach is far more appealing than the cleaning singing that does uphold for me any soul, merely tedium. Epic death and doom is a rather different beast to the “old school” approach adopted by many bands of late, a cool scene etc…well this Irish collective say bollocks to that. In some corners Mourning Beloveth bring a sense of serenity, something that you may appreciate of you like that sort of thing, but it is on their terms and it is a very dark place to be.

‘Ethics on the Precipice’ is oh my god, over seventeen minutes long and patience is certainly a virtue Mourning Beloveth intend their fans to possess, personally and a wearing tired of this by now but my solace comes in the form of heavier blasts of deathly delights underpinning a swollen stomach full of bile and dirge. ‘Dead Channel’ has more to it, it is more to the point even if it is a deep track it has less weakness and the clean vocals actually work here but that is because I like the punishing guitar tone ambling along behind them. There are in my mind only a few bands that can pull this style off, an elite sub-genre almost that tackles the very heart of human endurance and emotion, ‘Formless’ does this, but I don’t really feel any connection personally as I don’t have a lot of patience. Rewarded you shall be if you handle the album in a dark room with plenty of alone time, infrequent tirades of aggression are far outweighed by dreamy often dirge like musical passages, if you have the time, immerse yourself for this is actually a strong effort but I cannot hold my hand up too high comparing it to other material by Mourning Beloveth.